Old Septimus

If it's off the car make sure it is very securely clamped in a large vice before applying any current. I've seen someone energise one lying loose on the floor and the torque reaction had it bowling all over the place bouncing off things.

I got a Haynes Xflow manual some years ago written by ? Peter Wallage. Don't know if it's still published. Burton catalogue will give you all the eye candy as well as some good tips. Essex seems to be the spiritual home of the Kent!

In the early days of alternators which had rather fragile diode packs there was a concern that an excessive charger voltage could fry the rectifier. With better regulated chargers and more resilient rectifiers this may not be such a problem now. May be just an old wives' tale but I still disconnect mine if its being charged at more than a couple of amps.

You could try Jim Payne at Race Power Motorsport (near Road and Race in Kent). 01372 886622. Old school and would fix up your Manx Norton at the same time. He does a fair number of historic FF xflows.

There may also be some rather important spacers on the rack ends limiting the travel which will have to be swapped over to a non-Caterham Triumph rack.

Unusually it's 1243 I think.

My vacuum mounting doesn't vibrate at all once the nut is tightened to maximise the suction. The mirror is only about 4"X2" which means it is light and this may not be legal for a modern car.

I'm fairly sure that the mirror on my 68 S3 is the original (JWW alert) and it uses a vacuum cup tightened up with a nut on the mirror shaft. So Chapman used vacuum which must be the lightest form of adhesive!

Some Hylomar or other gunge on the threads of this bolt helps as it seems to go into the water jacket on some castings.

I've been using a skid plate brazed to the sump for nearly 20 years. it started as 1/8 but is now closer to 1/16 in places! The engine mounts seem happy to take the occasional upward loads.

The 3.2 does have a reasonably useful boot which becomes less so if you fit the brace. I fitted Dunlops and Contis on mine which were pretty conservative and some budget French variety which I had removed after two days because they were so terrifying. On my 993 C4 I've switched to Michelin which seem grippier than the Contis.

My 1968 S3 has similar problems with ground clearance and tyre width. I've just ordered from Longstone some Michelin(!!) 165x13 XAS FF tyres which are in the old XAS tread pattern but made from a racing compound for Formule France. They are 80 section and are said to be very grippy. I'll have them fitted in a few days and will report back if you're interested. Not cheap at >£100 plus theft.

The original pipe fitted by Lotus on my S3 was made of a hard plastic which lasted well and was light. Unfortunately after a particularly heavy compression of the rear suspension the nuts on the diff flange chewed through it and I found myself sitting in a pool of petrol. I replaced it with copper which was quite easy to bend over the axle and feed through the (fully enclosed) tunnel and I put two coils about 4" diameter in the pipe before connecting up to the fuel pump on the engine. These absorb the relative movement between engine and frame. I think copper is ideal for this application.

A real Lotus 7 usually has over-centre toggles front and back and on mine the n/s rear one always comes undone after 5 minutes but it doesn't rattle and in 25+ years the bonnet's not blown off yet. The front ones are judiciously placed to avoid fouling the ethnically pure clamshells.

Thanks for all the suggestions.